Page 115 of Misery

---

"Stop!" I move forward.

"Ah ah. The switch, remember?" Thiago's enjoying this. "Call her. Now."

"I'd rather die."

"But would you rather she lives knowing you could have saved her father and chose not to?"

Another scream from below. Longer. Worse.

"He's strong," Thiago observes clinically. "Most men would have broken by now. But everyone breaks eventually."

Eleyna moves.

Not toward Thiago but toward me, pressing something into my hand.

Her car keys. "The trunk," she whispers. "I brought presents."

Thiago's focused on me, doesn't notice. "You have sixty seconds to decide. Call her or listen to her father die. Your choice, brother."

I look at the keys.

Feel something else attached, a detonator of her own.

"You wired your car?" I whisper.

"I told you. I wanted him to suffer."

"Fifty seconds," Thiago counts.

I make a decision and pull out my phone, dialing Elfe's number.

She answers on the first ring. "Oskar? Did you find him?"

"I found him." I keep my voice steady. "But there's a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"The kind where you need to stay exactly where you are. No matter what you hear. Promise me."

"Oskar—"

"Promise me."

"I... I promise."

"Good. I love you."

I hang up. Look at Thiago. "She's not coming."

"Then her father dies."

"No," Eleyna says, standing. The .380 steady in her hand. "You die."

She shoots.

The bullet hits Thiago in the shoulder, spins him. The dead man's switch falls from his hand.

Nothing happens.

---